By Mike Montgomery, Executive Director of CALinnovates
Representative Anna Eshoo (D-Palo Alto) got it right when she wrote about the importance of Net Neutrality to the next generation in an op-ed published in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Millennials already live their lives online. If business or the government makes it more difficult for those young people to have clear access to all parts of the Internet, it will only further isolate them from the processes of government. Already, as Eshoo points out, roughly half of Millennials don’t identify with any political party. Take away Net Neutrality and it sends the strong message that government doesn’t share Millennials’ priorities. That would only push the next generation father away.
And while I agree with Rep. Eshoo’s assessment that an Internet without fast lanes is essential to the future, she is missing a critical point about the future of the open Internet.